Lonely Tonight
by Kathryn Claire O'Connor
Summary: Thor takes Steve on a trip to Asgard after the events of TWS, but Steve - who is already hurting after misreading Natasha's feelings towards him - isn't horribly impressed with the frequent parties of the realm. Then he meets Lady Sif and realizes that he might've found someone who's just as lonely as he is. *Steve/Sif two-shot inspired by Blake Shelton's Sure Be Cool If You Did*
1. Chapter 1

**This is something that I've had floating around in the back of my mind for a few weeks and I decided to write it while I was in between bigger fics. Enjoy!**

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Let's make one thing clear: Steve Rogers did not want to be here. Asgard itself wasn't bad; it was actually kind of awe-inspiring for a kid from Brooklyn. And Thor really had been kind to offer him a reprieve here after what the demigod had dubbed his "latest quest" with Natasha. It was just… the culture here was starting to get to him. Steve didn't mind a good training session any more than the next guy – he probably even liked it a little more than most people – and as a World War II veteran and Captain America, he was, at some capacity, used to war… but the _parties_. After his so-called "quest" with Agent Romanoff, he just wasn't in the mood for them.

He'd really thought that maybe something was starting between him and Natasha by the time their whole ordeal was over. Only, when she'd walked away from him and Nick Fury at the cemetery, it'd been to go straight to an unmarked vehicle driven by none other than Clint Barton – whom she had kissed very thoroughly then and there. Thus, she'd driven away with her dark knight, taking with her what he'd thought had been something meaningful, something that had actually all been an illusion, or, worse yet, just the wishful thinking and tricks of his own mind. Considering his mood, there was no way he was going to contact Sharon Carter after that, thank you.

So when Thor had dropped in and offered him a vacation in Asgard, Steve had jumped at the chance to get away from it all. Unfortunately, his dreary thoughts had followed him here, and Thor's cure for that – parties and far, _far _too much "ale" – did not work for Steve. No matter how much he tried to get drunk, and believe him, he _really _tried, it never worked which only served to get him all that much more depressed and frustrated with his life.

No matter how much Steve tried to explain it to his friend, the idea of not even being capable of getting oneself soused was totally inconceivable to Thor. The god of thunder had simply decided that Steve must not be trying hard enough and proceeded to take him to a party _every night _so far that week.

Though Steve had at first consumed _almost _as much alcohol as Thor at these things, it was now Friday night, and he'd given up even trying. Tonight he was going to keep to himself in an out of the way corner and nurse only one or two mugs of ale until Thor was ready to leave – which didn't look like it was going to be any time soon, considering that this party seemed a little more heightened than the others thus far. Tonight it seemed, a few of Thor's closest comrades had returned victoriously from a battle in another realm – at least that's what he'd been told when Thor had made a point of introducing him to the returned men – the Warriors Three – before Steve slipped away to his quiet corner.

An hour had passed since then and there was no sign of anything slowing down. Steve sighed into his drink, bored out of his mind of watching drunken people as he took another sip of his mug's contents. Over the edge of his mug, he noticed a face that had been floating around the scene all evening – the solitary woman to have come in with the Warriors Three, and possibly the only other person in the vicinity who was still in full possession of their faculties.

She noticed him noticing her then and cocked her head to the side, staring brazenly at him with assessing eyes. He lowered his glass and raised an eyebrow at her, smiling lightly before turning away so that he was only looking at her out of the corner of his eye. She seemed to be someone important tonight, and he wasn't going to make her feel like she had to come over here and talk to lonely old him – even if did want her to.

She knew he was still watching her; he could tell that by the smirk on her face, the way her gaze still rested intently on him. Steve caught her movements in his peripheral vision as she gulped down the last of her ale and handed the empty mug to the nearest serving girl instead of smashing it like most of the men in the room had done that night.

Then… oh geez, then she started heading towards him, a devious little smile tipping the corners of her mouth. He cleared his throat and took a nervous breath, looking away as he momentarily reconsidered the idea of once again trying to get drunk.

"You must be Thor's friend Captain Rogers," she said by way of greeting as she grabbed a chair from a nearby table and moved it so that she could join him in his little corner. Taking her seat, where Steve definitely _did not _notice that their knees were now touching, she offered, "I'm Lady Sif."

"Your grace," Steve replied, clearing his throat again and then impetuously taking her hand and kissing it like he'd seen Thor do to Jane.

Tony's way with women must've rubbed off on him a little at some point because he didn't feel like sinking into the floor, not even when Sif laughed, saying, "I'm not that kind of lady."

"But I'm sure you are _a _lady."

"Perhaps," Sif answered with a small smile. "Though my sword makes many believe otherwise. You, however, are unmistakably a true gentleman."

Steve laughed, murmuring, "Perhaps…"

"Well, I know of no other type of man who would still be on his first drink at this sort of celebration."

He shook his head when she nodded towards the mug in his hands, explaining, "It doesn't make a difference how much I drink. Like your sword, my super-soldier serum comes at a price." He sighed. "I am completely incapable of getting drunk." _Stupid metabolism rate…_

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	2. Chapter 2

Her eyes narrowed as she inspected his demeanor, surmising, "So if you lose yourself in ale, you would?"

"Without a second thought," Steve answered honestly.

Sif leaned a little closer to study his expression in the muted lighting and the smoke and ale didn't quite mask the surprising scent of cinnamon that floated about her as she asked perceptively, "Is it a woman?"

He laughed dryly again, blowing out a slow breath as he admitted, "I let myself see something that apparently wasn't there with my partner in a recent mission."

At that, Sif instantly reached out and grabbed the arm of a passing serving girl, ordering, "Two more mugs of ale, and don't you dare try to water them down like is done with the soldiers'."

The startled girl nodded quickly and disappeared to do Sif's bidding while Steve reminded the warrior, "That won't help me."

Sif smirked, informing him, "They're for me."

"Am I that depressing?"

"No… it's just a familiar story. Fall in love with your partner, they use you and leave you for something they call better. You're left blindsided and hurt, and they don't even see it. Am I correct?"

"Yes…" Steve said, as it slowly dawned on him where he had heard the name "Sif" before. In Norse mythology, she was supposed to be Thor's wife – which obviously hadn't happened… because Jane Foster had come into the picture instead.

His thoughts must've come onto his face because Sif said suddenly, "I'm beginning to hate those myths. They're all wrong anyway." The serving girl came with the requested ale, left it, and went on her way again before Sif continued, only occasionally meeting Steve's understanding gaze, "I've always known they were… and I let myself fall for him anyway. You see, the thing is, Captain, that my being a warrior has taken away more than some people's good opinion of me. In the cases of some of my closest comrades – including Thor – they see me as simply… one of them. Not as a woman… not anymore. Not since Jane Foster. And so, here, in the middle of all of my friends and brothers in arms and… partners… I am lonely because I can remember so clearly the way he used to look at me… but no longer does." Sif laughed self-deprecatingly. "Even when he would look at me like he loved me, I think I knew what he was doing. I knew I was being used, I knew it was just a sham, just like it had been with dozens of other girls; it was just something he did nearly without thinking about it. And yet I let myself feel something for him anyway. Now, I suppose, I have chosen the easier path of feeling something _because _of him rather than _for _him. It's not that I don't love him – it's not even that you don't still have feelings for your lady friend – it's just that it's easier to nurse the hurt and loneliness they've left us with rather than the feelings that we must now deny having for them." She smiled at him then, finishing, "And if all else fails, we may nurse drinks until we remember nothing, let alone our loneliness."

"I wish," Steve answered with a sigh.

"So I am right then?" Sif said. "You are as lonely as I, and for much the same reason?"

"You're not allowed to tell Thor, though," Steve said, looking her in the eye. "I have to work with both of them."

"I won't tell if you won't." She got a panicked look in her eye, asking, "You won't, will you?"

"Of course not," Steve answered immediately. "Kindred spirits aren't supposed to betray one another like that."

"'Kindred spirits'?" Sif repeated with raised eyebrows. "You're a strange man, aren't you?"

"From what I can tell, you're a bit of an anomaly on Asgard, too."

"And yet we are both 'kindred spirits' in our loneliness," Sif smiled.

"Pathetic thing to bond over, huh?" Steve asked lightly.

"And so needless..."

He asked in confusion, "What?"

"At the risk of sounding like the man who has ripped my heart to bits with the help of a mortal: even though we started out abandoned and lonely tonight, we don't _have _to be lonely for the rest of the night."

"Oh…" Steve shifted as she moved just a bit closer to him, that scent of cinnamon starting to befuddle his sane thinking patterns. "Well, listen, Sif…I… I've liked talking to you… and you're a very beautiful woman… but this sort of thing isn't really… what I usually do."

"Does that mean that you can't do it just once?" she asked calmly. "Because, really, this is Asgard, and the evening we return from a battle the entire palace looks something like one of your Midgardian college parties."

"I… never actually went to college."

"The point is that no one leaves an Asgardian party unless they are drunk or accompanied by another… and you apparently are unable to get drunk. "

Steve must be slowly losing his mind… or maybe the ale was actually doing its job on him for once – no, it couldn't be that; he hadn't drunk enough yet either way – because he was suddenly finding it really hard not to close the already shrinking amount of space between Sif's lips and his own.

"Thor will be leaving with me eventually, I'm sure."

Sif rolled her eyes, pointing to the god of thunder across the room – passed out cold at a table with the party still going on around him. "Thor will be leaving here with nothing less than the assistance of at least three servants carrying him to his room. You'll have to find someone else."

"And who usually accompanies you back to your room, Lady Sif?"

"My sword. I wouldn't trade my job for any other, but as I said, it's not conducive to desirable male company."

And here Tony was about to come out of his mouth as Steve said, "Well then, I suppose I wouldn't be the gentleman you think I am if I let you go back to your place alone after you've so clearly explained Asgardian customs to me where this whole 'exiting the party' thing is concerned."

"Indeed," Sif said with a nearly triumphant smile, kissing him deeply then.

Eventually acquiescing in their bodies' need for oxygen, they broke apart, breathing each other's air with their foreheads still touching as Steve whispered the question, "And just how soon is it acceptable to leave an Asgardian party if accompanied by someone?"

"Well," Sif teased. "If you intend to stay through the night with the person you accompany, any time is acceptable, really."

"Good," Steve answered, eagerly taking her hand and pulling her onto her feet and towards the nearest exit.

For the first time in what felt like forever, neither one of them were going to end up lonely tonight.

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**Ta-da! The end; hopefully you guys enjoyed this. Reviews make my day if you feel like leaving me one! Thanks!:)**


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